together at a time like this, although she wouldn’t mind dying like that. Wind rushed through her hair, whipping it back against his face. Flashbacks of flying into a tree after skidding over mud and twigs, crawled through her mind.
Bile rose in her throat.
She almost started screaming at him to stop, to make her walk, but then, despite the chaos in her mind, his hand came around, off of the handles, and threaded into her hair, right at the edge of her helmet.. The touch was soft and light, but it held her frozen. She didn’t notice the trees flashing by them, the cars they sped around, or even the young couple that they cut off at a crosswalk.
God, his hand was like magic. It was hard and calloused, and as his fingers threaded into her hair to massage her frantic nerves, her body turned boneless. She didn’t notice that they had stopped until his hand left her hair. He took the helmet off of her and for what seemed like the first time, he smiled down at her.
“That wasn’t so bad, was it?” he asked, the smile in his eyes reflecting in his voice.
A warm blush came over her as she looked back up at him. “It was horrible.”
Her blunt tone of voice only made his smile widen. “Oh, I just bet. Poor little Jamie, scared of a motorcycle...”
“I was in a crash once,” she said, feeling her chest tighten. With what, she had no idea. His teasing felt so natural, as if he were meant to be with her and they had been together for years. The familiarity was a small shock to her, but it made her smile softly.
“How did that happen?” he asked, sounding as if he didn’t really care that much. He helped himself off, then her. Her foot left the small brace at the bottom of the back and she took in her surroundings as she explained.
“My ex-boyfriend wanted to take me on a ride,” she started, eyeing the flat building that sat in front of her. In bold serif letters, it says “The Ally Cat. Bar and Gaming.” Under it, the silhouette of a woman was shown in a seductive pose with long curls falling to the bottom of the sign.
She looked back at him, noticing his look. He was silent as he waited for her to talk, a new awareness in her eyes. “I was all for it at first, then he got reckless.” Images of the past flashed in her mind, of her laughing with pure joy and then the fear that she wasn’t safe. “I had asked him to slow down, or to at least stop and let me off. He had taken the only helmet for himself and I hadn’t cared, I didn’t think it would be that big of a deal.”
A low, dangerous sound came from Talon, but she didn’t hear it. A young woman walked past them, walking even quicker when she saw the look on Talon’s face as he stared at Jamie. Her eyes were far away, lost as she remembered. “The crash hadn’t been that bad. But seeing your life flash before your eyes -- it’s life changing,” she said softly, turning to look at him again. The sun was out, but barely. Clouds surrounded it, shadows covering them as they stood in front of the imposing building.
“So he didn’t even consider you?” he snarled, looming over her.
Jamie backed up, eyes widening. He looked pissed, but in a different way than when he was possessed. The demonic voice was long gone, and so far he hadn’t been looking at her as if he wanted to kill her -- right now, he looked like he wanted to kill Chris.
It made her smile.
“Even I wasn’t thinking about myself --”
“That doesn’t matter.” His eyes hard, body tense, he turned from her and stormed to the door, taking out his motorcycle keys and shoving them into the lock. Twisting it open with an angry motion, he pulled the door open and watched her enter, his body radiating with fury.
Anxiously, she walked into the building and looked around, trying to ignore how angry he was. It hadn’t been that big of a deal, but the fact that he...cared.
Her heart turned over.
“Lucian?” Talon asked from behind her, into the dark. She looked at him like he was crazy. What were they doing? Meeting up with a vampire in a sex-rotten bar? The name that came from him left a hollow feeling